Read: "I did not even attempt to read the article"

"I’m not against extremist ideas on principle. I have my own, the main one being that animal welfare is a much larger urgent catastrophe than most people believe."

This is clearly a cool take though and author knows it. This is not a polarizing view in the sense that anything about Epstein / Gaza / Trans athletes would be.

Maybe not as polarizing as those, but by "animal welfare" he doesn't mean volunteering at the local animal shelter, he's a vegan. That's pretty polarizing to a lot of people who see veganism as an attack on their whole existence because they like meat.

I don't have a problem with vegans because that just means more meat for the rest of us.

Veganism is so polarizing because on some level I think most if not all people understand that they are philosophically correct and that veganism is thus the morally right thing to do and those (like me) who still refuse to do it must live with themselves and their immoral choices every time they are confronted by a vegan or reminded of the feasibility of veganism

Perhaps. I suspect it may have more to do with the idea that many non-vegans think (whether or not it is true) that vegans believe themselves superior. It isn't unlike how learning that someone is an atheist angers many religious people -- they think the atheists think that they are superior (whether or not they really do).

> many non-vegans think (whether or not it is true) that vegans believe themselves superior.

It's hard to imagine a reason why someone is vegan, that wouldn't logically entail such a self-image.

> they think the atheists think that they are superior (whether or not they really do).

Atheists do not present atheism as an abstention from religion, and generally describe religion as irrational or illogical, not immoral.

Of course everyone who consciously makes a socially difficult choice has a well thought-out reason for it (although atheism is not particularly socially difficult in my environment). But they aren't all directly comparable.

> > many non-vegans think (whether or not it is true) that vegans believe themselves superior.

> It's hard to imagine a reason why someone is vegan, that wouldn't logically entail such a self-image.

I know a guy that’s vegan because he shit himself after going to an Outback Steakhouse

The pigs that my family eats have a short but happy life. I'm not so sure that no life at all is objectively better.

This sort of rhetoric is exactly where the moral stereotyping of vegans comes from.

As for "feasibility", that is clearly not the same experience for everyone.

> a lot of people who see veganism as an attack on their whole existence because they like meat.

I haven't met anyone like this.

I have met people who don't like exposure to pro-vegan propaganda (which comes across as moral scolding). Also, one time I was taken to a vegan restaurant and I felt like I was being gaslit about the taste of the food.

I have also met (or at least encountered on the Internet) vegans who conflate the two.

People find veganism so annoying it's literally a meme.

“I have exactly one ‘extremist’ belief that I’m willing to share and here’s why I think it’s correct” doesn’t do much to clarify what constitutes extremist other than stuff the author is too smart to believe